Girls, aged 9 and 6, help grandparents prepare bulls for auction

Hadlee, 9, and Bentlee Holt, 6, from Lake Preston stand in front of their Charolais bulls.

Jennifer Naylor Gesick
Journal staff

Jan 31, 2017

Hadlee and Bentlee Holt of Lake Preston may have been the youngest cowgirls prepping their bulls for sale on Monday at the Black Hills Stock Show as they combed and dried and primped their animals.

Their Charolais bulls gleamed and shined as they helped their grandmother and grandfather — Alan and Deb Vedvei, owners of Vedvei Charolais — prepare for the Tuesday Auction.

The girls — Hadlee is 9; Bentlee, 6 — have been helping out around the ranch for as long as they can remember.

"Whenever it was safe enough for them to help out, we'd let them," Deb Vedvei said.

Asked what it takes to get these animals looking so nice, Hadlee responded, "A lot."

Bentlee's favorite part is blow-drying the bulls, and Hadlee said combing them is what she enjoys.

Grandma joked that them having such white coats makes their jobs even tougher. She said to prep them, they have to also work with them for a while before bringing them to auction to make sure they will remain calm and be able to handle all that goes along with such activity.

The family sells breeding stock of purebred charolais from their ranch in Lake Preston. They also sell bull semen.